Example embodiments of the present invention relate to an authentication technology for performing a user authentication with respect to a service account.
With the development in performance of electronic devices and with the greater supply and spread of network communication, a variety of services are provided through a network. Due to the increased supply of mobile terminals, for example, smartphones, equipped with a network communication function and an information search function such as in the Internet, uses of various applications installable and available on the mobile terminals are also on the increase.
Among services provided by applications, some services such as social network services (SNS), require user authentication to be performed in order to use all of or a portion of the application related services on a mobile terminal.
As an example of an authentication technology, Korean Registration Patent No. 10-1222471 registered on Jan. 9, 2013, discloses a technology for performing an online authentication using an identifier (ID) and a password on the Internet or other mobile communication networks.
Currently, a service account of an SNS may employ an authentication method based on a telephone number. For example, an account may be created through a one-time short message service (SMS) authentication per each telephone number.
However, when various circumstances, such as replacing a terminal, changing a telephone number, or replacing a subscriber identification module (SIM) card, occur, user authentication using a telephone number may require a re-authentication with respect to the service account of the user. However, the user may not be authenticated with an existing telephone number
An authentication technology using an email address or password input method in addition to a telephone number is present. However, in many cases, user authentication fails during a re-authentication procedure when a user forgets an email address or a password registered at the time of joining.